Digital Commons Network^™

Crowdsourcing Bicycle Volumes: Exploring The Role Of Volunteered Geographic Information And Established Monitoring Methods, Greg P. Griffin, Junfeng Jiao

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The recent interest in performance measures and new bicycle infrastructure development has triggered rapid advancements in monitoring methods for active transportation, but comprehensive monitoring programs for the bicycle mode are far from ubiquitous. This study evaluates the use of GPS survey data and a new crowdsourced volume dataset that may offer promise to extend the reach of limited counting programs. The authors integrated count data from 5 separate trail locations in Austin, Texas, with a previous survey using the CycleTracks smartphone app, and a new data product derived from a larger-scale use of the Strava fitness app. New crowdsourced methods …

Quantitative Study Of Housing Price Based On Huff Model And Hedonic Method, Yuan Li, Lang He, Junfeng Jiao, Guoqiang Shen

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Using Hedonic and Huff model, we conduct empirical study of the ordinary commercial housing price’s spatial pattern in Xiamen City, China. This paper mainly focus on the following three issues: (1) Exploring the 21 potential factors that influence spatial distribution of housing price; (2) The relationship between commercial size and housing price; (3) Quantitative analysis about the five primary factors’ mode of action and saliency characteristics. In the numerous variables, allocation of educational resources and the distance between housing and shopping malls and supermarkets based on Huff model have Significant impact on housing price.

Revisiting Compensating Wage Differentials: The Evidence From Employer-Provided Health Insurance, Dan Qu

Business Review

This paper uses 1996 and 2001 Survey of Income and Program Participation to examine the evidence for compensating wage differentials associated with employer-provided health insurance (EHI) in the United States. The results provide no evidence of a tradeoff between wages and EHI coverage. On the other hand, the results do suggest that employees who work in states with income taxes are more likely to receive EHI than those in states without income taxes. Fixed effects, first differencing and instrumental variable estimation are used to address the potential ability bias and endogeneity problems in wage models with EHI as an independent …

Front Matter Of Volume 10 Number 1, Tufail A. Qureshi

Business Review

Front Matter, Contents and Editorial Perspective

Sociocultural Factors Related To Parents' And Caregivers' Decisions To Vaccinate Children Against Hpv, Savannah Mcsheffrey

Open Access Dissertations

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S and can lead to several types of cancers. A better understanding of the variables impacting HPV vaccination will help inform the development of effective disease prevention interventions. This study aims to describe factors that impact parents’ and caregivers’ decisions to vaccinate their children against HPV by examining sociocultural factors and behavioral change theory among parents or caretakers of sons and daughters (ages 9-18) from diverse socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds. A national sample was recruited and participants completed demographic questions and measures related to their attitudes and …

Beyond The Expansion Framework: How Same-Sex Marriage Changes The Institutional Meaning Of Marriage And Heterosexual Men's Conception Of Marriage, Alan J. Hawkins, Jason S. Carroll

Faculty Publications

Social institutions profoundly affect human behavior. They provide human relationships with meaning, norms, and patterns, and in doing so encourage and guide conduct; they are the "humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction." That is their function. And when the definitions and norms that constitute a social institution change, the behaviors and interactions that the institution shapes also change.

Taxation Of State Owned Enterprises: A Review Of Empirical Evidence From China, Wei Cui

All Faculty Publications

This chapter reviews empirical evidence from China that bears on the general theory of the income taxation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Prior theoretical literature has offered three conflicting views of SOE taxation. The first is that SOE taxation is superfluous, because the government shareholder can simply demand profit distributions. The second is that SOE taxation is necessary to put state-owned and private firms on an equal competitive footing. The third view holds that the significance of SOE taxation lies in the fact that SOE managers, like managers of private firms, may be dividend averse; in the absence of other effective …

Examining Potential Iatrogenic Effects Of Group Treatment For Incarcerated Adolescents, Shayna S. Bassett

Open Access Dissertations

Rates of substance use among juvenile offenders are disproportionately high and frequently associated with deviant and criminal behavior (Mulvey, Schubert, & Chassin, 2010). Despite the prevalence of group-based treatment for adolescent substance abuse (Young, Dembo, & Henderson, 2007), some authors caution that aggregation of high-risk youth may increase rather than decrease antisocial behavior, thus producing iatrogenic effects. The current study sought to identify the extent to which various group processes as rated by counselors, observers, and adolescents mediate the relationship between type of group treatment received while incarcerated and adolescents' substance use and conduct problems following their release. Of the …

Reflections Of Undergraduate Business Education Alumnae: Shifting Perspectives On Gender And Work, Aimeé Duvall Phelps

Open Access Dissertations

Women are entering higher education at the greatest rate in history (NCES, 2012). They are succeeding and graduating with degrees relevant to leadership and business and are entering the workforce in record numbers (Catalyst, 2013; Eagly & Carli, 2007). But then women seemingly stall out (Barsh & Yee, 2011; Catalyst, 2013; Soares, Cobb, et al., 2011). The further up the ladder women climb - the fewer their numbers. Numerous literature streams document the potential causes and effects of this phenomenon. This qualitative study sought to augment the current literature that has ignored the impact of undergraduate business education on that …

Multivariate Measurement Of Multiple Health Behavior Change And Its Relation To Baseline Severity, Kelsey Elise Ufholz

Open Access Dissertations

Unhealthy lifestyle behaviors have been shown to significantly increase the risk of chronic illness. Interventions changing multiple health behaviors simultaneously show promise in reducing mortality, even more than interventions focusing on individual health behaviors. Multiple health behavior change is a new field with many fundamental questions unanswered, among them how to simultaneously measure progress in multiple health-related behaviors. Previous studies have examined several potential multivariate measurement methods but none have shown consistently superior results. Furthermore various methods may best be suited to specific behaviors, study goals, or intervention contexts. This study proposed to compare several of the most commonly used …

Self-Interest Or Self-Inflicted? How The United States Charges Its Service Members For Violating The Laws Of War, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This chapter explores the aspects of self-interest implicated by the US military prosecuting its own service members who violate the laws of war under different criminal charges than it prosecutes enemy belligerents who commit substantially similar offences. The chapter briefly explains how the US asserts criminal jurisdiction over its service members before turning to how the US military reports violations of the laws of war. It then sets out the US methodology for charging such violations as applied to its service members, and compares this methodology to that applied to those tried by military commissions. The chapter then discusses the …

Public-Private Financed Road Infrastructure Development In North-Central Region Of Nigeria, Adamu Mudi, John S. Lowe, David Manase

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The development and provision of road infrastructure in Nigeria has primarily been through the traditional forms of procurement strategies by the federal, state and local governments through budgetary allocations and door-financed loans and grants this thereby leaves the Nigerian road sector in a precarious situation. In recent time, with the demand for more road infrastructure arising from the population explosion and urban-ruralmigration coupled with the financial crisis experienced by the Federal Government resulting from globaleconomic and financial crisis the Federal Government of Nigeria therefore sought to involve the private sectors in the development of road infrastructure facilities via Public-Private Partnerships …

Internally Buffered Districts: A New Technique To Make Zoning Less Exclusionary, William Leaf, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Proposes creating a new kind of zone called an "internally buffered district." Within these zones, intensive land uses like stores and apartments are allowed, so long as the latter uses are physically separated from nearby residential districts. The article suggests that developers compensate homeowners for rezoning their property to the internally buffered classification, thus allowing for both more compact development and more protection of homeowners' interests.

Robotic Marriage And The Law, Mark Goldfeder, Yosef Razin

Scholarly Works

The United States, and the world at large, is in the midst of a family law revolution that will fundamentally change our very conception of family. Ethical challenges to age-old ideas have prompted people to ask foundational questions, such as how and why our most important personal relationships evolved. In a world where same-sex marriage has been legalized, it is only natural to wonder who marriage may include in the future. This essay explores the question of whether a human and a robot could ever legally marry in the United States. Through a thought experiment, it examines the legal and …

A Critique Of Hobby Lobby And The Supreme Court's Hands-Off Approach To Religion, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

Over the past several decades, the United States Supreme Court has demonstrated an increasing refusal to engage in a close evaluation of the religious nature of Free Exercise and Establishment Clause claims, instead deferring to adherents’ characterizations of the substance and significance of a religious practice or belief. The Supreme Court’s hands-off approach, which it has justified on both constitutional and practical grounds, has attracted considerable scholarly attention, producing a substantial and growing body of literature assessing and, at times, critiquing the Court’s approach.

Part I of this Essay provides a brief overview for analyzing the Supreme Court’s hands-off approach …

A Response To The Ipcc Fifth Assessment, Sarah Adams-Schoen, Deepa Badrinarayana, Cinnamon Pinon Carlarne, Robin Kundis Craig, John C. Dernbach, Keith H. Hirokawa, Alexandra B. Klass, Katrina Fischer Kuh, Stephen R. Miller, Jessica Owley, Shannon Roesler, Jonathan D. Rosenbloom, Inara K. Scott, David Takacs

Scholarly Works

This collection of essays is the initial product of the second meeting of the Environmental Law Collaborative, a group of environmental law scholars that meet to discuss important and timely environmental issues. Here, the group provides an array of perspectives arising from the Fifth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Each scholar chose one passage from one of the IPCC’s three Summaries for Policymakers as a jumping-off point for exploring climate change issues and responding directly to the reports. The result is a variety of viewpoints on the future of how law relates to climate change, a result …

Evaluation Of A Modified Monod Model For Predicting Algal Dynamics In Lake Tai, Jian Huang, Qiujin Xu, Xixi Wang, Beidou Xi, Keli Jia, Shouliang Huo, Hongliang Liu, Changyou Li, Bingbing Xu

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Several modified versions of the Monod model have been proposed to simulate algal dynamics in lakes by keeping the parent model's advantages of simplicity and low data requirement. This study evaluated the performance of a widely-used modified Monod model in predicting algal dynamics at various time scales in Lake Tai, a typical shallow lake in east China, using multiple time series. Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration was used as a surrogate for algal (CyanoHABs: cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms) growth and the independent variables were total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and either water temperature or air temperature. The evaluation indicated that the …

American Dreams, American Realities, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Review of Zoned In The USA, by Sonia Hirt.

The (Somewhat) False Hope Of Comprehensive Planning, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Comprehensive planning at the municipal level, although useful in a variety of ways, is neither necessary nor sufficient to promote "smart" (that is, pedestrian and transit-oriented) growth. Comprehensive plans can be used to support sprawl as easily as to support smart growth, while smart growth may be promoted effectively through zoning reform or statewide legislation as well as through local planning.

An Empirical Analysis Of Noncompetition Clauses And Other Restrictive Postemployment Covenants, Randall S. Thomas, Norman D. Bishara, Kenneth J. Martin

Vanderbilt Law Review

Employment contracts for most employees are not publicly available, leaving researchers to speculate about whether they contain postemployment restrictions on employee mobility, and if so, what those provisions look like. Using a large sample of publicly available CEO employment contracts, we are able to examine these noncompetition covenants, including postemployment covenants not to compete ("CNCs" or "noncompetes'), nonsolicitation agreements ("NSAs"), and nondisclosure agreements ("NDAs'). What we found confirms some long-held assumptions about restrictive covenants but also uncovers some surprises.

We begin by discussing why employers use restrictive covenants and examining how the courts have treated them. We then analyze an …

Baptizing O'Brien: Towards Intermediate Protection Of Religiously Motivated Expressive Conduct, Daniel J. Hay

Vanderbilt Law Review

Despite the relative prominence of religious expression in society' and its elevated status in constitutional law, the Supreme Court has struggled to articulate a consistent standard of review for neutral, generally applicable laws that indirectly burden religious expression. Since the late nineteenth century, the Court has vacillated between a highly deferential belief-action dichotomy and a more searching (albeit selectively applied) compelling interest test. Currently, the Court embraces a hybrid categorical-rational basis standard that relies in part upon a highly criticized assumption that the political process will be solicitous of minority religious practice. This retreat to rational basis has subordinated religious …

Proposed Legal Constraints On Private Student Lenders, Mary C. Nicoletta

Vanderbilt Law Review

Many American high school graduates face a difficult choice: They can pursue higher education and the higher earnings it provides, but that means taking on debt that it may take them decades to pay back. Or they can forego a college degree and its attendant debt but be stuck earning lower wages for their entire lives. For many of these students, there is no viable third option. From an early age, many Americans have been told about the value of a college degree-without one, finding a job is difficult and lifetime income is severely depressed. Data relating educational attainment to …

Park, Rah, And Tizon's "Honoring The Generations: Learning With Asian North American Congregations" (Book Review), Elizabeth Pearson

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Beach And Sanchez's "Love Letters From The Edge: Meditations For Those Struggling With Brokenness, Trauma, And The Pain Of Life" (Book Review), Pamela Gore

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Beach And Sanchez's "Love Letters From The Edge: Meditations For Those Struggling With Brokenness, Trauma, And The Pain Of Life" (Book Review), Deborah L. Denison

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Acl News & Notes

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Naselli And Snoeberger's "Perspectives On The Extent Of The Atonement: Three Views" (Critical Review), Paul Hartog

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Mitchell And Riley's "Christian Bioethics: A Guide For Pastors, Health Care Professionals, And Families" (Book Review), Becky Fisher

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Book Review Index (By Title And By Author) To Volume 58 Of The Christian Librarian

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Grudge Spending: The Interplay Between Markets And Culture In The Purchase Of Security, Ian Loader, Benjamin J. Goold, Angelica Thumala

All Faculty Publications

In the paper, we use data from an English study of security consumption, and recent work in the cultural sociology of markets, to illustrate the way in which moral and social commitments shape and often constrain decisions about how, or indeed whether, individuals and organizations enter markets for protection. Three main claims are proffered. We suggest, firstly, that the purchase of security commodities is a mundane, non-conspicuous mode of consumption that typically exists outside of the paraphernalia of consumer culture – a form of grudge spending. Secondly, we demonstrate that security consumption is weighed against other commitments that individuals and …